The SketchBook
by calliecature
Summary: AU. A medium is where you pour your heart and soul. Sometimes, we need one to realize a few things.


Fanfiction Audler Project

One- Shot

**Title:** The sketchbook

**Summary:** AU. A medium is where you pour your heart and soul. Sometimes, we need one to realize a few things.

Audrey should have realized it every time she opened her sketch pad.

The 15-year old girl sat alone underneath the shade of a Truffula tree, flipping page after page of art where she had poured her heart and soul.

Every occupied sheet was filled with Truffula trees- tall, whippy trees with clusters and bunches of pastel tufts against the blue and green. Inside her head, she would admit the Truffula forest is her first love. It was unlike any forest that she sees in her books. Every time she looks at the truffulas, the truffulas seem to look back at her as if they're taunting her to capture their colour, to grasp the bend and strip of their trunks.

But for some reason, some…one is competing for the pages inside her sketchpad.

It's not her fault, really. It's just that… he's just there.

Her hand hovered over a certain page. It was a light, loose sketch, made purely of vague circles and lines. But she knew who it was. Who could mistake that tall, slim figure anywhere?

There was something about him that made her turn even if she just saw him in the corner of her eye. Weekends is when she would come for her beloved Truffula trees and sometimes, Once-ler would take a break with his Thneed business and join her company.

And boy, does he make a lot of noise. She would be in the zone, drawing to her heart's content, and he'd be strumming that electric guitar and singing nonsensical melodies with zest. Sometimes, he would lead the forest animals to the chorus.

But Audrey didn't mind. The first time it happened she just sat there gaping like an idiot, surprised by the sight of singing bears. Then she began watching him.

He's a performer, alright- so unmindful of his surroundings or of whom could be watching him. He'd gyrate along the music of his guitar, throw his arms energetically at the beat and do a little dance with it- all while encouraging the animals to sing along. Pretty soon, Audrey's hand began to itch to put it on paper.

That was the beginning of it.

Her hand flipped more pages as her eyes see more and more sketches of her attempts to catch his motion; bodies with long lines that indicate arms being flung with energy, arches of trunks as though under the might of rock music and charcoal strokes of legs that march, skip and jump with unheard music. But there were more too; long slim figures in fedora hats and strip pants resting underneath the truffula trees, feeding stacks of pancakes and marshmallows to forest animals, having a scowling match with the Lorax, chasing Pipsqueak after he stole his hat and even leading his mule.

She was almost at the end of her sketchpad and she knew what was in the last page. But still, she turned to that page.

It was a portrait of Once-ler's. The funny thing is she had drawn it from her mind's eye. Audrey would only admit it out loud if she is on a cold, dark edge of the universe but she had drawn what she like most about him.

"Hey, whatcha got in there?"

Audrey gave a yelp of surprise and slammed her sketchpad close. Looking up, she saw Once-ler walking up to her and carrying his guitar.

"Nothing," she mumbled.

The tall guy sat near her and settled back against a trunk of another Truffula tree. Audrey watched him guardedly while her fingers held her sketchpad closed firmly. Once-ler saw her hands and rolled his eyes.

"Believe me, Audrey; I really think you're a rockstar of an artist. You've shown me your trees; you don't have to hide it from me." Then his expression brightened. "Hey, have you drawn something new? Can I see it?"

"NO!"

Audrey blinked and covered her mouth. Even Once-ler looked taken back. She put a strand of her hair behind her ear distractedly. "I mean, it's not yet done."

He squinted his eyes on her and she squinted her eyes back. She knew that he knew she was hiding something from him. Right now, they were having a visualization of the fight for the sketchpad that is to come any moment.

Once-ler suddenly had a mental image of her flipping him over her shoulder. He may be stronger than he looks but he doesn't have the moves that Audrey had once given him. She couldn't help but smirked as realization of the outcome dawned on him.

Once-ler shrugged and decided to let it go. "Alright. But let me see it after, okay?"

The red-haired girl did not bother to answer but collected her bag and stuffed her sketchpad alongside her colour pastels. Sunday is when she took out her painting materials from Once-ler's tenthouse.

"I have to go."

The young man 3 years her senior gave her a look of surprise. "So soon already? But I just got here."

"Yup."

Once-ler gave her a quizzical look then shrugged. "Okay." He plucked a chord in acquiescence.

Audrey gave a sigh and turned around to the town's direction. After a moment's hesitation, she turned around again.

"Once-ler?"

"Hmmm?" He tipped his hat back to look at her and Audrey can see again that tall, slim form from her sketchbook resting underneath a truffula tree and playing his guitar.

"Don't go changing."

Once-ler grinned. "Hey, isn't that a song?" He then began to strum the introductory.

Audrey laughed and ran off, waving goodbye. When she had covered a good distance between them, she slowed down into a walk. Their conversation played inside her head and in her mind's eye, she saw again what she liked most about him.

The smile of an open, honest face.

She wrapped her arms around herself and looked up in the sky; in her heart, she feels a warm glow.

_Why haven't I noticed it before?_

**Writer's note:** I like Once-ler as himself before he got corrupted and I pretty much like Audrey too. But for them to meet around the same age group is only in an AU. And in there, I pretty much think he's somewhat older than her. People usually leave home at the age of 18 that could have been his age and Audrey looks like 14-15 years old.

Don't go changing. Don't you just love irony?


End file.
